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Topic: 2 brood boxes v. 1 (Read 4981 times)

I've heard some use 2 brood boxes per hive in order for the queen to expand. Is this a good thing to do? I also acquired a glass backing brood box w/a woden door. I felt it was unusual at first because it is double the capacity of a regular with room to put 20 frames. Does anyone else use these?Thanks,Boz

Its good for productablity if you have enough bees to suffice the area. Too much room compared to the bees will be detrimental due to the fact that it'll be hard to keep the brood warm.If your beginning with say a 3lb package I would start with only 1 box of 10 frames.

As the hive grows give them room to expand. You should wait until the hive is 80% full before adding another body. You can run as much brood as the queen needs. You can restrict the amount of room for the queen with excluders or 7/11 frames. I have not used the 20 frame hive you mention.

Sincerely,Brendhan

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bozbee has asked about something that I ahve been wondering myself. Here in the south, I have noticed that most beekeepers only use one deep hive body for brood. Adding more brood space will mean more bees thus more honey. Would not two hives with single brood boxes be as productive as a single hive with two brood boxes? Steve

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asprince, 2 hives with 1 box, compared to 1 hives with 2 boxes does not produce more honey. Yes, it produces more brood, and if you stack another box on top of that one, it will produce 2x more honey. However just the one box will be used primarily as a brood chamber the entire life of the colony until the colony determines it wants to swarm.

I use 2 large brood chambers and 1 large honey super per colony.When I winter, i take off the honey super, and leave with 1 honey super.If i have trouble with the queen laying in the honey super, I simply put a queen excluder in between them.I fill up a super quite quickly, and with 2 large brood chambers I have the ability to split 3 to 4 times a summer due to the ability of the large brood chambers to regenerate fast.

Anyone who limits the size of the brood box is restricting the productivity of the hive. The more brood means more bees to forage, more forage means more honey to harvest. If the queen wants to lay in 3 or even 4 boxes, let her. You can always move frames of brood down as you harvest the honey if the bees haven't begun to do it themselves. This is why I use use 4 mediums as a basic brood chamber and let her have 5 or 6 if she wants it. Having the boxes all the same size simplifies fall reductions when moving brood frames down.

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